Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who turned 76 years on Sunday (October 12), has appealed to people not to visit his residence, Naveen Niwas, to wish him on his birthday.
It is for the fourth consecutive year that the CM”s birthday will see no fanfare and instead he will be flying to Hyderabad to attend the last left of the curtain raiser to the ‘Make in Odisha’ conclave, the state’s flagship industry-investors meet slated to be held later this year.
“I am indebted to the people of Odisha for their love, affection and blessings,” the release issued by Chief Minister’s office quoted Naveen as saying.
Naveen usually avoids celebrating his birthday and on some pretext or the other requests people every year not to throng Naveen Niwas to wish him.
It was in 2011 that he first decided against celebrating his birthday in honour of the flood victims.
Two years later (2013), the state was struck by Cyclone Phailin in which 23 people were killed and about 9 million residents were affected. More than 1 million people were evacuated ahead of its landfall to avoid a repeat of the 1999 cyclone, which saw 10,000 deaths. Choosing not to celebrate his birthday, Naveen held rehabilitation and relief meetings with senior officials with a focus on restoring electricity in the worst-affected Ganjam district.
In 2014, the Chief Minister did not celebrate his birthday in view of the devastation caused by cyclone Hudhud which left three persons dead and hundreds homeless in the state.
As a mark of respect to the jawans, who laid down their lives fighting against terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, Naveen decided against any kind of celebrations in 2016.
In 2018, he did not celebrate his birthday in view of the large-scale damage and human suffering caused due to cyclone Titli and subsequent floods in several districts.
The loss inflicted by cyclone Fani that struck Odisha coast near Puri on May 3, 2019, again saw him giving his birthday celebrations a skip in 2019.
He had also decided not to celebrate the day in 2020 during the first wave of the pandemic and again in 2021 with the second wave returning to haunt the state again.
Naveen was born on October 16, 1946, in Cuttack. He became the Chief Minister in 2000 when the state was still recovering from the devastation caused by the 1999 Super Cyclone. He is one of the longest-serving chief ministers of any Indian state, holding the post for over two decades, and only the third Indian chief Minister after Pawan Chamling and Jyoti Basu to win five consecutive terms.
